4. Structure And Ministry In The New Testament
4. STRUCTURE AND MINISTRY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
As already noted, one of the truly perplexing questions in New Testament studies is to determine the shape that leadership and structures took within the earliest congregations of God’s new covenant people. The difficulties here stem from the lack of explicit, intentional instruction, noted at the beginning of this paper. The reasons for it are related both to the twofold reality of their eschatological existence and their experience of the Spirit, not to mention the simple fact that one seldom instructs on something that is generally a given.
What I hope to do here is to offer some reflections on the data as they come to us in the documents. Several things seem quite certain: