“Elders” Everywhere? Really?

5/1/2026

To someone being attacked because he can’t name his personal elder, personal “covering”:

* Corinth — no elders mentioned
(First Letter to the Corinthians, Second Letter to the Corinthians)
* Rome — no elders/overseers mentioned
(Letter to the Romans)
* Thessalonica — leadership implied but not called elders
(First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:12)
* Colossae — no mention
(Letter to the Colossians)
* Laodicea — no mention
(Colossians 4:16; Revelation 3)
* Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia — no elders mentioned
(Book of Revelation 2-3)
* Antioch (Syria) — prophets and teachers mentioned, not elders explicitly
(Acts 13:1)

People really want to treat the Bible like a recipe book for a Martha Stewart pot roast.

By the way, just to make sure Grecian widows had food amongst the thousands of new converts, seven people were chosen to pass out food. They had to be known to be “full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom” (Acts 6:3)! That’s bare minimum for shepherds, or overseers, or deacon/servant.

Nothing to do with education or “seminary” or “ordained”! And titles are forbidden! According to Jesus himself!

So show me all of these “elders” who are known to be busting out full of the glory of God, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom, and everyone around them has seen it and experienced it. “Known to be!”

If you’re going to use Martha Stewart, why is it almost never done correctly? Because the seminary graduates who can give a sermon are not known to be full of the Holy Ghost and full of wisdom whatsoever. Nor are the elders or deacons. That is very rare. So Martha Stewart’s technique can’t work in modern Christianity where almost no one has “tasted the powers of the coming age” (Hebrews 6:5) and almost no one is known to have, seem to have “rivers of living water gushing out from the inner man” (John 7:38)!

You’re so right. Of those who are called “elders” today, how many are really “hospitable, lovers of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined” (Titus 1:8)? How many “hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught, so that they can encourage others by sound teaching” (Titus 1:9)? How many “manage their own household well and keep their children under control, with complete dignity” (1Tim 3:4)? I have to think the world would be a different place if there really were men like that in every town from coast to coast...

A shepherd is different than a master of ceremonies and official talker, at a ceremony on a specified day of the week and start time and end time—none of which is in the Bible. Paul said, “I fear I have wasted my time on you because you have special days and seasons” (Gal. 4:10-11). God said call no man by any title. (Matthew 23:8-10) They do. God said when revelation comes to the second, let the first one sit down. (1Cor. 14:30) They don’t. God said to be called alongside, admonish, and encourage one another DAILY so that none are hardened and deceived. (Heb 3:12-13) They don’t. So get out of the hypotheticals and into the direct commands and see where it leads.

The cultural blindness is just unbelievable to me. If they only try to Live Jesus’ way, they would be amazed at how much would change for the good in 36 months with people that truly are full of the Holy Ghost and full of wisdom, with rivers of alive water gushing from their inner man. And with that, persecution as Jesus promised for getting the leaven out of the batch. This is probably the explanation for the intentional cultural blindness. It’s easier.

And people will be matured or saved who never would have been with the false attendance-clergy-based world religion version. Instead of Barna’s 91% of attenders that “do not have a biblical world view” and 70-90% of teen “church goers” (there is no such biblical concept anyway) who abandon their “faith”—those odds will be totally inverted, Jesus’ Way of “this whole new LIFE together” good news, Acts 5, Heb.3:12-13, Acts 2.

I’m not correcting them, I’m pulling for them and Jesus, and praying for you all!

Paul said, “I may not be an apostle to anyone else, but surely I am to you,” to the Corinthians. And he wrote 2/3 of the New Testament!

There are no titles in Christianity. And as Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey me” (John 14:15). There is a particular structure in the Greek for a title. I can have a brother, without him being “Brother Fred.” Titles are forbidden by Jesus himself. There are dozens and dozens of truly “full of the Holy Ghost and full of wisdom” (Acts 6:3) people listed in Roman 16, Colossians 4, and throughout the New Testament. And not one single person was given a title. And not one single person ever “went to church.”

What have we done to the family, the community Jesus started and King James translated “church”?!

Some ask.... “So where do you go to church? What denomination are you? What do you believe about specific doctrine?”

We do believe the Bible is the word of God, and many of us came out of every denomination you can think of, from Catholic to Pentecostal to Baptist, several of us used to be “pastors” and many went to seminary or Bible college. We all decided that the Bible itself, Jesus Himself, say we shouldn’t divide into denominations, John 17, but instead should center around Jesus. Jesus only. Jesus the person. The gospel is the blood of Jesus that washes always sin. The good news of the kingdom is that daily relationships between those who are washed in the blood create the body of Christ. The kingdom of heaven, the gospel of the KINGDOM: “Tell everyone about this whole new LIFE,” as the Angel who let the apostles out of jail said in Acts chapter 5:17-20, Acts chapter 2:42-47.

•  System or Ecosystem