Qualifications of Elders — I Timothy -7 Above Reproach (Paul begins with positive attributes) ... The Husband of One Wife. Temperate. Prudent. Respectable. Hospitable. Apt to Teach. Not a Drunkard (here he begins the negative attributes)
Today, men and women are called to be church elders. Their age doesn't matter as much as their life experience, wisdom, and desire to serve God and the church's people.
In some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodism) an elder is an ordained person who serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices.
A determination letter is an official document from the IRS that confirms your church is a tax exempt, 501(c)(3) organization. Often, vendors, donors and potential funders will ask for this letter as proof that your organization is a legitimate, charitable organization.
The IRS will require you to have three founding members who are not related by blood or marriage. Ideally, you have already built up a fairly sizeable following, and are now looking to make your church official.
The appointment is the congregation's recognition or affirmation that a prospective elder possesses the biblical qualifications found in 1 Tim. –7 and Titus –9. It is the acknowledgment, “This man is biblically qualified and evidently a gift of Christ to our church” (Eph. ).
First, elder rule allows the church to be ruled as much as possible by Christ and His commands. As mentioned above, the Scripture indicates that elders are merely Christ's representatives in the church, meaning that they are not authorized to implement with the weight of command anything but the Word of God.
1 Timothy -18 17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
Elders are essential to a church because their ministry includes an emphasis on protecting the people by using the word to refute those who would harm them. Again, this is something that all Christians can do, but Christ has seen to it that there's no question of who must do this.
Throughout his epistles, and especially the pastoral epistles, Paul makes it plain that every New Testament church should have elders, that is men who “direct the affairs of the church” (1 Timothy -18).