Are Business Meetings A Scriptural Expedient
In The Absence Of Elders?

By Randy Blackaby

Many congregations, for one reason or another, do not have elders to shepherd the local church. It has become the normal custom in churches of Christ to have the men of the congregation, meeting in what is termed a “business meeting,” try to fill the gap created by the absence of elders. But, is this a scriptural expedient?

Like many controversial issues, this one probably isn’t as simple as some have sought to make it. Let me suggest that there are several issues or questions concerning business meetings that need to be considered:

This isn’t an unimportant series of questions because business meetings likely are the form of church leadership in the majority of churches of Christ—not the exception.

Before we investigate further, here are a few more questions we need to place on the table:

Five Typical Conditions Of Church Organization

The late Brother H.E. Phillips, in his book “Scriptural Elders and Deacons,” seems to have suggested correctly that there are five possible conditions of a local church, relative to its organization.

It can be scripturally organized if it has qualified men appointed as elders and deacons. It can be scripturally unorganized if it doesn’t have a plurality of qualified men to serve as elders and deacons. This might be the case with new congregations, small ones or those in special circumstances, like those made up of students or soldiers. Or, it might be that the congregation just remains immature, its men not interested or not growing in God’s graces. Another condition is that of being unscripturally organized. This would be the case if unqualified men were appointed elders or if committees or some other secular model directs and leads the congregation. A fourth possibility is that of being unscripturally unorganized. This would be the case if a congregation had qualified men to serve as elders and deacons but preferred some sort of democratic method by which scripturally unqualified people led the church. The last possibility might be called super-organized, when extra levels of leadership not ordained in scripture are added to that of elders and deacons. Denominational “boards” and “committees” might exemplify this.

You might have observed while considering those five conditions that some church business meeting arrangements could fall under the unscripturally organized or unscripturally unorganized categories.

What Is The Function Of Business Meetings?

Before we get closer to answering the question of whether business meetings are a scriptural alternative to elders in some circumstances, we need to examine just what it is that business meetings are designed to accomplish.

Specifically, what do we mean by “business”?

What becomes obvious very quickly is that men without the qualifications given for elders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 can deal much better with material issues than they can with spiritual ones. But even with that said, God gave qualifications for the men who will serve the congregation in material matters—the deacons.

When you consider that business meetings are composed of men (often including boys as young as 12 to 17) of all different levels of spiritual maturity and immaturity, it raises great questions concerning the ability of such a group to adequately “watch” for the flock (Hebrews 13:17).

Every qualification given for elders has a purpose related to the work they are to do. Men who are far from meeting those qualifications can’t be expected to do that work adequately.

Personally, I’ve never seen a business meeting arrangement capable of handling the spiritual oversight of a congregation. In the absence of elders, that job usually falls to the evangelist, which also raises its own set of questions and problems.

Where Is The Scriptural Authority For Business Meetings?

Everyone must quickly confess that nothing that is called a “business meeting” is heard of in the scriptures. But could there be an example of such under some other description?

Some might focus on the meeting of the Jerusalem church recorded in Acts 15. The church there did assemble to consider the issue of the Law of Moses and its application to the Gentiles.

The similarity to a business meeting is that the church assembled to decide what should be done. But the dissimilarity is a critical one. Apostles, elders and inspired men, led that meeting. It wasn’t a group of novices or spiritual weaklings deciding such an important matter.

If we don’t have a command or example of a business meeting in scripture, is there a necessary inference that in the absence of elders someone must do the job, therefore the business meeting? This is the most common conclusion when this subject is discussed.

Are There Any Scriptural Alternatives To Business Meetings?

When I was a 20-year-old and just beginning to preach by appointment in various small congregations in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, I encountered one alternative proposal. It was new to me then and I’ve found it openly espoused only in a few areas of Indiana. It was called “evangelical oversight.”

A brother told me he believed that the preacher, regardless of his age, marital status or other qualifications, was supposed to “lead” the church until he had taught and trained men to be elders. Once trained, he was to “ordain” them and then leave and work with another group without elders.

I don’t remember any scriptural authority for that being cited and I recall asking the man if he really thought that I, as a 20-year-old bachelor, was qualified for such a task.

Few today would openly espouse evangelical oversight, but it is probably the most common leadership form in the church today, borrowing much from the denominational single “pastor” system. Many churches practice such while vehemently denying they do.

A better approach is one for which we can find biblical support. It involves the younger showing deference to the older and more mature in a congregation. This corresponds to the Apostle Peter’s instruction, “Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders” (1 Peter 5:5). And the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:1-2). Both of these passages speak, not of the office of elder, but of people older in the faith and older in years.

This is recognition that some in virtually any given congregation are more mature, more spiritually developed, than others. These should be deferred to, always, but particularly in a case where there are no mature men holding the office or work of elders. Galatians 6:1 makes clear that some are more spiritually developed than others. Paul wrote, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

While the Old Testament law is not binding on Christians today, the patterns presented there are recorded for our learning. And we see deference and respect for older members of the community throughout that testament’s period.

But, while this approach has more scriptural support than most as a temporary substitute for elders, it isn’t perfect. This is because many older people have never developed themselves spiritually to have the qualifications needed to carry out important parts of the work of elders.

So, for many, it’s back to the business meeting.

Problems With The Business Meeting Concept

Many see no workable alternative to business meetings when there are no elders. But even if this is true, there is a great need not to become comfortable with this humanly devised expedient. It can’t be permanently or unnecessarily imposed as a substitute for God’s pattern of elders and deacons in every church—without sin being the result.

As we’ve already suggested, the church is going to be harmed if this approach is followed very long. It is impossible for an eclectic group of men, of different maturities, to accomplish what mature, experienced elders can accomplish.

Such men trying to fill the shoes of elders is little different than the comical attempt of young Mormon “boys” to be “elders.”

And it is hard not to believe that many churches like business meetings because Americans are fully invested in the idea of democratic process, everyone having an equal voice and getting to “vote” on various problems and issues.

Elders are not necessarily decision makers, per se, but greater weight and deference should be given to their judgments, simply because of their qualified maturity in the faith. Voting approaches, or even consensus models, can sometimes wind up doing an end run on the rule of Christ Jesus, our king.

Any congregation of God’s people who prefer, or are satisfied with, the business meeting approach to church leadership, is in sinful rebellion against God.

We Face A Dilemma

We can’t ordain just any men so that we can say we have elders. And yet we must find some means of carrying on the work of the local church until qualified men can be appointed to lead in this work. Nothing gets done, generally, unless some direction is given.

Perhaps a parallel to this dilemma is the one faced when a father or mother dies and the remaining spouse is left alone to raise the children. A mother isn’t qualified to be a father and vice versa. Yet, unless a suitable and proper second mate is found, the surviving parent must do his or her best to fulfill the role of the other.

Occasionally, an individual Christian will find himself in a place where there are no other Christians, and thus, no church. Until he can find other Christians, convert someone, or move, he or she must do their best to worship and serve God even though no worship “assembly” is possible.

So, perhaps, a business meeting is a temporary crisis answer. But it should never be a situation we choose or that we are satisfied and content to perpetuate.

And let me urge that even in such meetings, the young should defer to the older and more mature. If this scriptural pattern is followed, much that has scandalized business meetings for generations can be eliminated or at least minimized.


Randy Blackaby lives in Medway, OH and preaches for the New Carlisle church of Christ. He also serves this congregation as one of its elders. He has preached full-time for about 18 years and part-time for that many more. During the period from 1971 to 1988 he was a reporter and later managing editor of The Xenia Daily Gazette in Ohio. He preached for 14 years in Kokomo, IN and has written a number of newspaper columns as a preacher, including Bible Q&A and op-ed pieces on current issues from a biblical perspective. He is a staff writer for Truth Magazine and writes monthly columns for the New Carlisle Sun, the Knollwood Messenger and this magazine. He has written a host of workbooks on Bible texts and themes, including recent ones on the book of Galatians and the Life of Moses. Currently, he is working on another on what the Bible teaches about “Money and Possessions.” After the fall of the Soviet Union, he made five preaching trips to Lithuania between 1994 and 2000. He can be contacted at randyblackaby@sbcglobal.net.


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