Another thing we have to consider is what we should do with the local church at the regional center of the work. There are two types of local churches: the general local church and the local church at the regional center of the work. Actually there is not much difference between the two. There is only a small difference related to the place of apostles in that local church.
In a place like Philippi, for example, you can see that there were elders, deacons, and brothers and sisters in the church. Philippians 1:1 says very clearly, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.” In other words, this letter was written to all the believers, the overseers, and the deacons in the church. This is the arrangement within a general local church: There are overseers, deacons, and brothers and sisters.
It is somewhat different if you are in a local church at the center of the work because there is an extra group, the apostles. In every locality the overseers always administrate the local churches. In the locality where the regional center of the work is, there are the apostles.
The apostles administrate the work in a certain region. The apostles are for the work, but at the same time they also administrate the local church there. Therefore, when the apostles are in the locality which is a regional center of the work, they are there as apostles on the one hand and as overseers, elders, on the other hand. The apostles care for the work in a certain region or area. Perhaps the word region is too formal. As long as you know what it means, that is good enough; we are not fighting over words. The apostles administrate the work in a certain area, and they also administrate the affairs of the local church at the center of the work.
However, the apostles should not directly administrate a local church in their status as apostles. Therefore, the apostles at the same time become the elders.
The Bible shows us that when the church held a conference to discuss how to handle matters in the church (which only happened once in the Bible), they sent out letters saying, “The apostles and the elder brothers...” in Jerusalem (Acts 15:23).
Here I want to point out to you that Peter was an apostle, even a leader among the apostles. However, Peter was also an elder in Jerusalem. First Peter 5:1 says, “The elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder.” Please remember that Peter was not only an apostle but also an elder. Second John 1 says, “The elder to...” Third John 1 says, “The elder to...” In 1 Peter 1:1 Peter tells us that he was an apostle. He wrote the Epistle as an apostle, but in 5:1 he shows us that he was also an elder. At the beginning of his second and third Epistles, John said that he was an elder. It is quite peculiar that, unlike Paul or Peter, John does not mention that he was an apostle. At the beginning of each Epistle, Paul shows us that he wrote the Epistle as an apostle, but John, in his second and third Epistles, says in a simple and straightforward way that it was an elder who wrote the Epistles. Therefore, you can see that the two greatest apostles in Jerusalem were also elders in Jerusalem. Peter and John, the two most renowned among the apostles in Jerusalem, were elders in Jerusalem. With the exception of James, there is no record that any of the other apostles in Jerusalem were elders. In the book of Acts, Peter, John, and James are three noted apostles. The Epistles tell us that two of them were elders.
During the conference of the church, James was the one who made the final decision. According to the history of the church and the word of the Bible, we can see that he was an elder in Jerusalem at that time. Furthermore, according to the Bible, James was ahead of Peter, since it was James who decided on matters.
Therefore, in the church where there is a regional center of the work, you can let the local brothers, the dependable, elderly ones who have the spiritual weight, learn to oversee. At the same time, there are workers who are the elders of the local church on the one hand and the apostles in that region on the other hand.