Many historic churches between Newark and Sodus have tiny congregations where formal elder boards can mean just two or three people hold all authority. Is biblical elder plurality a non-negotiable or does it need to flex for the realities of small-town church life?
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Add your commentI served as a lay elder at a small congregation in Wayne County for eleven years. What I can tell you from lived experience is that the burden on two or three people in that role is enormous and often invisible to the rest of the congregation. You're doing pastoral care, administrative decisions, financial oversight, and theological discernment — sometimes all in the same week — while also holding down a full-time job because rural churches rarely pay elders. If we're going to insist on elder plurality for small congregations we also need to have an honest conversation about what we're asking of those people and whether we're actually supporting them.
I think people are forgetting that the early church in Acts met in HOUSES with maybe 15-20 people. The New Testament model was always small and local. The idea that elder governance only makes sense above some membership threshold is a completely modern assumption with zero biblical backing. Small congregation does not mean less structure — if anything it means those elders need to be MORE intentional because everyone knows everyone and favoritism is a real temptation when your board is your neighbor and your cousin.
With all due respect this whole conversation treats 'biblical elder plurality' like it's a clear cut command when in reality NT scholars debate significantly about how much the early church had uniform governance structures at all. Some of what we call 'elder-led governance' is as much a product of Reformed and Presbyterian tradition as it is a universal New Testament mandate. I'm not saying throw out elders. I'm saying hold the specific structural requirements with a little humility, especially when you're asking 22 people in a Wayne County village to pretend they're a Presbyterian General Assembly.
Born and raised in Newark, attended First Presbyterian my whole life. We went through a stretch in the early 2000s where our elder board was literally two men — my dad being one of them — and honestly? The church ran FINE. They were godly, accountable to the congregation, and nobody felt steamrolled. Sometimes I think we over-theologize structures that were designed for communities way bigger than Sodus Point.
My grandmother's church outside Sodus has had the same three families keeping things going for 30 years. At some point you stop calling it an elder board and start calling it what it is — the Johnson family making all the decisions lol. Not throwing shade, they're wonderful people, but let's be real about what 'governance' means when your congregation is 22 people on a good Sunday.
What gets me is that we'll bend every other aspect of church life for context — music style, service times, building size — but suddenly governance is the one thing that has to be rigidly identical whether you're a megachurch in Scottsdale or a 30-member congregation in Sodus. I'm not advocating for no accountability. I'm advocating for wisdom. Scripture gives us principles. Our job is to faithfully apply those principles to the actual communities God has placed us in. Wayne County is not Ephesus.
To the person above — that is not correct at all. Deacons and elders/overseers are distinct offices with clearly different qualifications and functions in 1 Timothy 3 and Philippians 1:1. Paul addresses both separately. They serve complementary roles but they are absolutely not the same thing. Please don't spread that in a forum where people are trying to work through real governance questions for their actual churches.
Moved here from Rochester about three years ago and I gotta say the small church culture out here is genuinely different from anything I grew up with. The tiny congregation I attend near Lyons literally operates more like an extended family than a formal institution. The 'elder board' is kind of a formality on paper but the real decisions happen at potluck suppers. Is that unbiblical? I genuinely dont know but it works and people love each other well.
Elder plurality isnt optional. Its right there in Titus 1 and Acts 14:23. Paul appointed elders — plural — in every church. Every church. Not just big ones. Not just suburban ones. If your congregation in rural Wayne County cant field a qualified elder board then maybe the honest question is whether that congregation is healthy enough to function independently. Hard truth but someone had to say it.
Can we talk about the sister church model? Several small congregations in Wayne County sharing a circuit of elders across locations. I know it sounds weird but it actually has historical roots in how circuit riders operated. You could have a qualified elder board that has oversight of two or three tiny congregations instead of each congregation straining to fill slots. Someone challenge me if this is unworkable — I want to think through it.
the sister church / circuit idea above is actually really interesting and i think its been tried informally around here already. the presbyterians kind of do this already with shared pastors. why not extend it to elder accountability structures too
Nope. Hard disagree with anyone saying flex on this. The whole POINT of plurality is protection from one guy going rogue. Doesn't matter if you're in Manhattan or between Newark and Williamson on Route 88. Two elders is still two elders. That's still accountability.
Actually I believe the Bible says deacons and elders are the same office, so a lot of this debate is moot anyway.
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